Rome, beginning and, “hopefully,” she thinks despite this Monday’s defeat, the end of a nightmare that began a year ago and that has relegated Paula Badosa to an unexpected and unpleasant professional situation; so much so that she, she says, she doesn’t even want to look at the ranking. Today’s reveals the delicacy of the situation: after the three-set defeat against the American Coco Gauff (5-7, 6-4 and 6-1 in 2h 21m), her name drops to 141st place; That is, too far from the theoretical dimension of a tennis player who managed to conquer the paradise of Indian Wells (2021), who managed to compete among the masters (that same year) and who managed to climb to second position in the world. It was ugly, then, the panorama. However, there are reasons for hope.
The Foro Italico in Rome is where the whole ordeal began, that slight crack in his spine that resulted in a lumbar stress fracture and that has practically prevented him from competing for a year. But Rome can also be, she dreams now, crossing her fingers, the setting that marks a turning point and returns her to a more natural space, taking into account the volume that her game can reach. “Why not?”. The Spaniard (26 years old) has signs to cling to, because beyond the fact that the North American has blocked her path, the route of the last two days suggests light and ends the feeling of helplessness of recent times. They are a round of 16, yes, but with high symbolic content.
To begin with, Badosa had not been able to string together four consecutive matches since he did so a year ago, precisely in Rome, which expresses an evolution in terms of physicality, play and spirit. They also tell him that whatever his body responds to, his level is not too far from that offered by high-level players; The triumphs against Mirra Andreeva – the young woman who has probably been hitting the hardest -, Emma Navarro – another tennis player who is growing – and Diane Shnaider invite optimism, also taking into account that she was able to refute Gauff, three in the world, until the deposit It was emptied due to the wear and tear of the previous days. And above all, she is left with the magnificent feeling of having momentarily imposed herself on her back.
Every day on the stretcher, with as many hours of rehabilitation, treatments and cortisone injections as of training, the Spaniard has finally been able to complete a reasonable sequence of competition, with two meritorious comebacks and a final confrontation with Gauff that with a little more luck and without those mistimed double faults he could well have fallen on his side. The American, in any case, unceremoniously surrendered him when she detected that she had collapsed. In the midst of the anxiety – up to 12 breaks, excessive inaccuracies in the service (11 double faults for the winner and nine for her) and also too many errors (40-32) – Badosa controlled her rival until her strength failed and she decompensated. . In any case, the taste that remains in his mouth is very different from that of previous tournaments and where recently he only perceived darkness — “every week there is disappointment, it is very difficult to see myself down there,” he said in Madrid —, now he finds stimuli to keep fighting.
Paradoxes of tennis, the breath of air caught in Rome contrasts with the cold reality of the moment, which indicates that today she is the sixth Spaniard after Sara Sorribes (46th), Cristina Bucsa (69th), Rebeka Masarova (88th), Jessica Bouzas ( 100th) and Marina Bassols (111th), and who had not worn such a low qualifying number since 2018, a time of darkness and depression; but, at the same time, she guarantees her presence at Roland Garros without the need to play the previous phase, given that she is protected by the long period of inactivity (seven months) of the last year. In Paris, then, she will have another opportunity to continue regenerating and gaining confidence, as long as her blessed vertebra allows it. The Foro Italico, a before and after for her. Turning point again?
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